Thanksgiving Dinner

This year we went to Kenny's brother and sister-in-law for Thanksgiving. We were responsible for the deserts, so Kenny had already bought yesterday 2 pumpkin and 1 apple pie and this morning he made a large batch of rice krispies.

Dinner wasn't until 5 pm . So we left our hours around 1 pm and it normally takes us about 1 1/2 hours to get to their place. But of course this is Thanksgiving and everyone is trying to get out of town...and we were stuck in traffic for almost 3 hours. We finally made it to their house around 4 pm.

Dinner was served at 5 and it was fantastic. We had Turkey, Ham, Mash Potatoes, Corn, Roll, Cranberry Sauce, Green Bean Casserole and Stuffing.

Lora (Kenny's sister-in-law) also invited some of her family and it was great hanging out with them, as we don't get to see them very often.

All in all it was a fun night... We left around 9.30 pm and made it back home by 11.

Trailer: Doctor Who - Christmas Special

I just watched the Trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Loved it. Can't wait to see the entire episode. Really missing Doctor Who!!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.1

Normally Kenny and I don't do midnight screenings. The last midnight screening we did was at least 4 years ago. But Kenny's friend Troy thought it would be a cool thing to see it at midnight, and that's exactly what we wound up doing.

We thought that getting by 10 pm to the movie theater would be a piece of cake. But things never quite work out as planned. Kenny got off work at 7 pm and had the worst traffic driving back home. He made it home by 8.30 pm. We had a quick dinner, got dressed and by 9.15 we hit the road again. Everything was going quite well until we hit the 5 / 170 Interchange. Suddenly we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. We made it to the movie theater by 10.30 pm and got our tickets. By that time they had already let people into the theatre and it was packed. We tried to find 3 seat together... but we were out of luck. So we chose 3 seats in the 4th row from the front. While we were waiting for the movie to start, Troy called that he was stuck in traffic as well. at around 11.45 pm he was about to get onto the 110 and I thought that there is no way that he can make it to the theatre in time. But to my complete surprise he made it to the theatre with 15 minutes of preview to spare.

Here are my thoughts about the movie:

I went into the movie with literally no expectations at all. If I recall it right I had seen the trailer once.

• I loved all the action scenes, but some of them seem just to quick and too jerky. Not sure how different it would look from a little further away.
• I loved the interaction between Ron and Hermione.
• Ginny's kiss with Harry while George walking in was absolutely priceless.
• Kreacher and Dobby's effects were absolutely amazing.
• The opening of the Locket SFX was awesome and Ron's reaction...absolutely perfect!
• The snatcher action scene was great. A little too jerky for my taste, but I know that they were trying to go for a frantic look.
• The torture scene at Malfoy Manor was absolutely chilling.
• Dobby's death really didn't effect me emotionally.
• Voldermort breaking into Dumbledore's grave perfectly done and a great way to end the movie.
• My only complaint would be speed the story moves along. Is a little too slow for my taste.

Doctors Visit

Today I had an doctors appointment. To be honest I didn't expect much good news anyways. As I was pretty sure that I was having slight issues with my blood sugar levels.

But there are still some good news:

My viral load is undetectable and my T-cell count is with 1380 very good.

So now to the bad news:

• LDL is too high
• HDL is too low
• Triglycerides are too high
• My blood pressure is too high (140/93)
• My blood sugar level is 114
• Folliculitis

That my LDL is too high is not particularly new. It has been that way for quite some time now. I was hoping that eating healthier and loosing 9 lbs would have helped. Guess not so much luck with that.

I hoped that the HDL levels would go up by eating healthier. Guess not so much luck with that one either. I'm taking already meds for my high triglycerides on my high LDL. So far that hasn't been working to good. Part of the problem can be Atripla, as that prevents parts of the Lipitor form being absorbed. So now my doctor doubled dosage. From now on I will be taking 40 mg of Lipitor.

My blood pressure has always been a little on the high side, but usually it was around 130/85. Now with it being at 140/93 that is definitely something to keep an eye on.

I've pretty much know for a couple of weeks that my blood sugar has to be elevated. Intense fruity smell are the tell tale signs of borderline diabetes... and I really don't like that idea at all. Being not even 40 yet and already starting to have issues with diabetes, is way too early for my taste. In 1 month I have to go back to my doctors to have my blood sugar levels checked again, at which point we will have to decide on how to precede further.

On top of that I have something called Folliculitis. In essence it's an inflammation of one ore more hair follicles. I have it on my neck and it makes me somewhat look like a '40 year old teenager'. My doctor prescribed a medicated soap... and that will hopefully take care of the problem. If not it will need to be treated with anitbiotics.

All in all the news were pretty much all bad!!

Neighborhood Meeting - Round 3

Today we had another Neighborhood Meeting at one of our neighbors down hill. On the agenda was pretty much how many people were willing to go forward with the lawsuit.

Turns out that only 5 of the 20 people living along Yucca Hills Road were willing to contribute funds to the lawsuit.

The guy who is doing the attorney work pro bono wants to have at least 10 or 12 people on board to go forward with the lawsuit. For him it doesn't really matter if they all will contribute funds, as long as they are on board and willing to sign a declaration that they have been having issues with the 1 guy on Caprock Road. So we decided that we will try to get a few more people to sign the declarations in the next few week before making any decisions on how to precede further!!

A absolutely Black Day

The Midterm elections were an absolutely back day. This is the only conclusion you can come to. Before going into the details of that election disaster, I'll be taking a look at CA Propositions first.

• Prop 19 would have made sense from a fiscal and from a law enforcement point of view. That's why it didn't pass. Fact is the CA Electorate is not going to pass anything that actually makes sense.
• Prop 20 on the other hand was the dumbest possible idea, that's exactly the reason why it passed. Welcome back segregation, welcome back!! On the other hand Proposition 20 is perfect if you in fact plan to slowly set up a fascist dictatorship!!
• Prop 21 failed, because it would have made sense and been a good idea... apparently you can't have that in California!!
• Prop 22 passed... of course, because it's a stupid idea. I hope the CA Electorate is pleased that they gave away local control and opened the door to the exploitation of senior citizens. Great job, you moronic idiots!!
• Prop 23 failed not because of the issues involved, but because Texas Oil Companies have terrible reputation. That's one of the few bright spots.
• Prop 24 didn't pass, because it would have made sense and would have held the big corporations accountable and pay their fair share. Well in CA you certainly can't have anything that makes sense!!
• Prop 25 is the actually surprising thing. It makes sense and it did pass. Nobody could be more surprised about that. As that outcome should stop the budget gridlock in Sacramento.
• Of course Prop 26 passed... since that thing is at least as damaging as Prop 23 and at least as evil. Voting NO on Prop 26 would have been the logical thing to do... and we certainly can't have any of that!!
• Prop 27 failed. Well voting YES on 27 would have been the right thing. It would have ensured fair representation in DC... Apparently the CA Voter prefers unfair representation, the reestablishment of Segregation and the slowly introduction of a de-facto fascist dictatorship. Way to go, morons!!

Well the Midterm elections were an absolutely disaster. There is no way in getting around that. The real issue is not really that the Republicans won the majority of the House and the Democrats held onto a very slight majority in the Senate. That's not really of much importance. The way more important thing is that this country has made a complete turn to the right... I would even say to the far right!!

The way more disturbing thing is the huge success of the TeaParty. I know what those people are about... and I have seen a movement like that before: Hitler and the Nazis!!

Let me refresh your historical memory... When Hitler rose the first time to power he had only won about 30% of the votes... and the political establishment were certain they could control him. We all know how that turned out in the end.

The year 1930 and the year 2010 have absolute similarities. In 1930 the Nazis started their rise to power. The same as happening with the TeaParty in 2010. If history repeats itself in less than 3 years the TeaParty will control 30% of House and Senate and the GOP will be the big enabler of the TeaParty. The GOP might believe, that they can control/influence the TeaParty, but in the end they're just kidding themselves. Within less than 10 years this country will be a fascist dictatorship. It's quite troubling, but still not that what makes this election absolute disaster.

Yes, it is bad that the Democrats lost the majority in the house. From my point of view that's a rather minor issue. The way bigger issue is that 2/3 of this country made a sharp turn to the right and in large parts to the extreme right. That is bad, but still not a terrible issue. What is way more troubling than all that are the implications that come with that:

Any Democrat, regardless if he's running for the House, Senate or for President will have to appeal to the right wing voter. Any Democrat who would be doing so will offend the center-left and left Democrats. That fact makes a real change in political power in the near future very unlikely. Besides that one has to consider that GOP and TeaParty alike ran a very successful campaign using mostly hate and fair based arguments. In 2012 they can run pretty much a carbon copy of the 2010 campaign... as they have still someone to blame for no progress at all: the current administration. I don't pretend that I could predict the future... but the outlook for the next 10 years is very, very black!!

As bad as that all is, there are certain 'big' issues that are way more important to me. Let's take a quick look at them:

• The Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA)... forget it for the next 20 years!!
• DADT Repeal... forget it for the next 20 years!!
• Repeal of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act)... you can forget that for the next 20 years!!
• Immigration Reform... you can completely forget about that as well!!
• In the next 20 years the LBGT community won't be seeing any progress, but lots of regress of current LBGT rights instead!!

I'm not about to make any decision now. I want to see what the 9th Circuit is going to do with the CA Prop 8 Appeal and what's going to happen with the Massachusetts lawsuit against DOMA. I want to see what the 9th Circuit does with those 2 lawsuits. It's not like I believe that this will really make any difference. It will prove to me if the 9th Circuit makes decision based on law or if they rather keep themselves a door open for the coming change. Even if the 9th Circuit and the Supreme Court were to take the position of the Plaintiffs... it's not going to make any difference. A conservative/ultra conservative legislature is not going to make any equality decisions at all.

All of that is interesting and frightening at the same time, but still doesn't address the 'core-question': Living with the knowledge, that in 20 years from now some equality improvement possibly might come... is that really good enough to base a life on it???

Happy Halloween

Today Kenny and I went to our friends Tom and Ervin's Halloween Party. Tom has this every year where we watch cheesy horror movies and enjoy the company of friends.

I opted not to dress up. We got to Tom and it was great seeing some friends we haven't seen in a while. We snacked and visited until the movie came out. It was a Hammer films with Christopher Lee called "Dracula A.D. 1972" and of course way horrible. Best part about going to this part are the comments everyone makes during the show... after the show Martin started a Time Warp dance and got several people to join him. It was a lot of fun. They started a second movie but Kenny and I called in the night as we had a long drive home. It was a great nights of food, friends and cheesy movies.